İSTANBUL (DİHA) - Yılmaz Güney Culture and Act Foundation, and Asi Film organized a commemoration for Yilmaz Güney (1931-84); a master of startling imagery, vigorous storytelling and political commitment, a legendary figure in Turkey's cinema and undoubtedly the best-known and most controversial filmmaker the country has produced to date.

On the 27th anniversary of his death, many luminaries in politics, media, art and literature attended the commemoration in the Beyoğlu Cinema in İstanbul. Following the speeches about Güney and his life story, one of his films, "The Wall" (Duvar) was screened.

Born to a Kurdish mother and a Zaza Kurd father in rural southern Turkey, Güney's career in cinema began in 1953. While pursuing degrees in law and economics- in Ankara and ultimately Istanbul- Güney made a name for himself as a talented, and at times controversial, writer of fiction whose political outspokenness landed him briefly in prison, for the first of many times.

By the end of the 1950s, Güney was working steadily as a screenwriter, assistant director and actor. A handsome man with a charismatic screen presence, Güney became a huge star, playing tough guys and outlaws and earning himself the nickname "the Ugly King."

During the 1960s, Güney established his own production company just as a lasting socio-cultural and political unrest began to take hold of Turkey. Güney's first few films as a director were fascinating genre exercises with subtle political undertones.

His movies' original mixture of realist detail, expressionism, and even darkly absurdist humor brought international recognition, while their depiction of the hopelessness of the urban poor incurred the wrath of Turkish censors. After his arrest and week-long imprisonment in the unrest that followed the coup by Turkey's military in March 1971, Güney left Istanbul to avoid further trouble with the authorities and retreated to the mountains of Anatolia, where he made the film, "Elegy."

After a period of intense productivity that produced a series of impassioned films, Güney was again imprisoned in 1972, accused of ties to revolutionary groups. Released as part of a 1974 general amnesty, Güney was able to make two more films before being arrested and convicted for the murder of a right-wing judge, apparently during a restaurant brawl. The details of the crime remain obscure and controversial, and Güney always maintained his innocence despite incriminating evidence.

In prison, Güney devoted himself furiously to screenwriting, which resulted in "The Herd" (1978) and his most famous film "Yol" (1982).

Taking advantage of his relatively lax incarceration, Güney escaped in 1981 by simply walking out of prison. Then he was able to be present (although as a fugitive) at Cannes in 1982, where "Yol" won the Palme d'Or, a success that enabled him to direct 1983's "The Wall" in France before dying suddenly of cancer that same year.

(gü/ia)